8 reasons why weight training is incredible for your health

Weight lifting isn’t just about bulking up and building muscle mass, the experts say. Its benefits North State Barbell Club include improved posture, better sleep, gaining bone density, maintaining weight loss, boosting metabolism, lowering inflammation and staving off chronic disease, among a laundry list of positives.

Here’s a look at reasons why resistance training is incredible for your health.

It keeps your bones strong and healthy
Your bones need to stay challenged, just like your brain needs exercise to stay sharp. After about age 30, you start to lose bone density at a small percentage each year. Keep in mind, women make up 80 per cent of osteoporosis cases as they lose bone mass.

“Resistance training creates force on the bone and helps it stay strong. Your body cares about survival, not looking cute in a bikini – it has to adapt to survive so it’ll get stronger and bones will get stronger to endure these forces,” Schoenfeld said.

It staves off disease
Phillips says the research community is recognizing that cardiovascular disease, Type 2 diabetes, and “all the classic chronic diseases” including cancer aren’t as likely with any form of activity, from strength training to cardio.

“A lot of the relationships with aerobic fitness are strongly tied to and mirrored in people’s strength. The stronger you are, the more resilient you are against disease and overall risk for mortality,” Phillips said.

It boosts metabolism and fat loss
Hopaluk started with cardio, cardio, cardio until she hit a plateau. That’s when she read up about strength training.

“I learned you can change your metabolism because you’re burning more calories if you have more muscle. It’s an active tissue, it burns more energy at rest compared to fat,” she said.

Phillips uses a thermostat as an analogy: Imagine your body is a house and aerobic exercise cranks the heat for about 30 to 40 minutes while you work out. Resistance training, on the other hand, doesn’t turn the heat up as much but the burn lingers for a longer time.